Consultants to discuss Harney proposals

The national council of the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association (IHCA) will meet today to discuss proposals put forward by Minister for Health Mary Harney to break the deadlock in negotiations on a new contract for specialist hospital doctors.

Ms Harney yesterday urged the consultant bodies to return to talks on a revised contract with a joint Health Service Executive (HSE) and Department of Health negotiating team.

She said that the health service management negotiators had been empowered to deal with issues of concern, under the direction of the board of the HSE, and that she was confident that a resolution to the current impasse could be reached.

The IHCA delegation was told that the board of the HSE had established a sub-committee which could react promptly and tactically to developments in the talks, without having to wait for its regular monthly meeting.

Among the issues of concern for consultants, which have held up the talks for the last three months, was a decision by the board of the HSE to abolish the category II consultants' contract - a move which would effectively ban new doctors from seeing fee-paying patients in private hospitals.

The talks have also been delayed by a dispute over whether the issue of payment for contractual changes should be determined by direct negotiations between the parties or referred to an outside body.

Health service management has proposed that the Review Board on Higher Remuneration in the Public Service - which determines top-level pay - could play a role in "pricing" any new agreement.

The secretary general of the IHCA, Finbarr Fitzpatrick, said that the Minister's proposals opened the way for reaching an accommodation with the management side on the problems which had prevented progress.

However, he said that consultants would not get into protracted discussions with the management on these issues.

He said that it would become evident after one or two meetings whether progress on the outstanding problems could be made. A spokesman for Ms Harney said last night that the meeting with the IHCA had been cordial and constructive.

The introduction of a revised contract for hospital consultants is one of the key elements of the Government's overall healthcare reforms.